Work
As late as the 1840s, and despite Friedrich Wöhler's synthesis of urea in 1828, some chemists still believed in the doctrine of vitalism, according to which a special life-force was necessary to create organic compounds. Kolbe developed the idea that organic compounds could be derived from inorganic ones, directly or indirectly, by substitution processes. He validated his theory by converting carbon disulfide, in several steps, to acetic acid (1843–45). Introducing a modified idea of structural radicals, he contributed to the establishment of structural theory. One of the more dramatic successes of his theory was his prediction of the existence of secondary and tertiary alcohols, a conjecture that was soon confirmed by the synthesis of these substances.
He worked on the electrolysis of the salts of fatty and other acids (Kolbe electrolysis) and prepared salicylic acid, a building block of aspirin in a process called Kolbe synthesis or Kolbe-Schmitt reaction. A certain method for the synthesis of nitriles is called the Kolbe nitrile synthesis.
Hermann Kolbe was the first person to use the word synthesis in the present day meaning.
With Edward Frankland he found that nitriles can be hydrolyzed to the corresponding acids.
Read more about this topic: Adolph Wilhelm Hermann Kolbe
Famous quotes containing the word work:
“Work is an essential part of being alive. Your work is your identity. It tells you who you are. It’s gotten so abstract. People don’t work for the sake of working. They’re working for a car, a new house, or a vacation. It’s not the work itself that’s important to them. There’s such a joy in doing work well.”
—Kay Stepkin, U.S. baker. As quoted in Working, book 8, by Studs Terkel (1973)
“[My early stories] are the work of a living writer whom I know in a sense, but can never meet.”
—Elizabeth Bowen (1899–1973)
“Lord, do you not care that my sister has left me to do all the work by myself? Tell her then to help me.”
—Bible: New Testament, Luke 10:40.
Martha to Jesus.